Transform Oatmeal Into A Healthy Muffin

Vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and filling!

Maybe you’re tired of oatmeal, or perhaps you need a more portable meal than something in a bowl.

If you’re a mom of a young kid, you need an arsenal of snacks. This is one I keep in my toolbox and it’s quick to make. Most muffins are full of processed sugar and loaded with unhealthy oils. This one isn’t!

I’m not going to lie, this muffin is nothing you’d pick up at a local bakery, except one for health nuts. But luckily I’ve conditioned my son to like desserts that are naturally sweetened and low in sugar, even though he loves candy.

When he opens up his lunchbox and he’s looking for a treat this is filling, this muffin is perfect and won’t make him crash.

It’s basically a bowl of oatmeal, sweetened with apple sauce and bananas and juice, and you can add extra protein powder if you like, more hemp seeds, nuts, and so on.

I like it as breakfast on the go, or to just give me some more variety rather than my daily go-to bowl of oatmeal.

Recipe:

• Four very ripe bananas
• two cups of oats, ground into flour
• half cup of unsweetened apple or mango juice
• half cup of unsweetened apple sauce
• two tablespoons of ground flax seeds
• one teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• half tablespoon of pure vanilla extract
• half tablespoon of baking powder
• half tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
• half teaspoon of baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees farenheit.
2. Line a muffin tin with liners
3. Grind your oats into flour (in a food processor), or use ready-made oat flour.
4. Puree your bananas by hand in a bowl, or in your food processor.
5. Put all dry ingredients into a bowl: flour, ground flax seeds, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda.
6. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients: apple juice, apple sauce, pureed banana, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla extract.
7. Mix a little until combined.
8. Fill each of your muffin liners 3/4 of the way full.
9. Bake for 20–25 minutes until you insert a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean.

Notes:

You can replace 1/2 cup of the oat flour with hemp seeds, pumpkin seed flour, or almond flour.

You can stir in 2 cups of frozen blueberries into your muffin mix, but add 8–10 minutes to the cooking time.

After the muffins have cooled, you can freeze them for up to 6 months. I pull a few out the night before and they’re defrosted for breakfast in the morning, or to pop into my kid’s lunch.

Recipe courtesy of Chef AJ, Forks Over Knives